The priority of the new owners of London Irish is to halt the exodus of players, starting with the England wing Marland Yarde who is out of contract at the end of the season, and attract leading internationals with the focus on Ireland.

A business consortium, led by Mick Crossan, who has become the club's president, has taken a majority shareholding in the parent company that manages London Irish. The move, coupled with the sale of the training complex in Sunbury next summer, will wipe out the debts of the Exiles, who have been losing seven-figure sums in recent years, and allow them to spend the full £4.5m salary cap.

Alex Corbisiero, Jonathan Joseph, Anthony Watson, Jamie Gibson and George Skivington are among the players who left Irish at the end of last season and Yarde, who played for England against Australia last month, will not have a shortage of offers.

"Marland is a home-grown player and as someone who we brought through the ranks we are very keen to keep him," said the executive chairman David Fitzgerald, who has taken charge after Andy Martin resigned as the chief executive. "But there is a market out there and there's a point at which you say you're better off investing elsewhere. I don't want people to run away with the idea that we have brought in a whole load of money and are basically going to be the next Toulon. The reality is that the French market is in a different league to everybody else. It doesn't make economic sense to start competing with those guys. Rugby is not a toy you can invest in for fun."

Irish have signed the South Africa prop CJ van der Linde for the rest of the season and he joins the Australia back James O'Connor and the Wales second row Ian Gough, who were recruited after the start of the season.

"We would love to get our hands on a frontline Irish international but clearly we want to work with the unions," said the Exiles' director of rugby, Brian Smith. "We are not trying to drag Paul O'Connell out of a central contract but if it fits for someone who has missed the boat or who wants a life change, then we can attract that type of player."

O'Connell, the Munster second row, is out of contract at the end of the season along with fellow second row Donnacha Ryan, Jamie Heaslip, Sean O'Brien, Gordon D'Arcy, Rory Best and Keith Earls.

Crossan said the aim was to make Irish, who will keep playing in Reading, one of the best clubs in the world with a squad made up in equal thirds of top internationals, Irish players and academy products.